Coca-Cola offers $1 million for new artificial sweetener innovations; Soda tax thwacks Chicago's suburbs; Will Smith plugs JUST Water on James Corden's "Carpool Karaoke"; NPR takes a look at the rise of seltzer; Bai seeks a more mature brand image.

The one-penny-per-ounce tax on sweetened beverages, which officially goes into effect today, makes Chicago the most populous American city to adopt legislation aimed at steering consumers away from sugary drinks in the name of public health.

A Cook County, Ill. judge moves to delay the implementation of the county's tax on sugary beverages, a class member objects to the terms of the GT's Kombucha-Whole Foods lawsuit settlement, and Southern Glazer's Wine and Spirits faces allegations of fraud.

As the industry continues to mature, the manner in which individual brands choose to approach the issue of alcohol and sugar content in kombucha will likely play a significant role in determining the health of the category going forward.

Two days after Seattle became the latest addition to a growing group of cities that have implemented a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, “Soda Politics” author and advocate Marion Nestle appeared at Harvard University for a scheduled talk about the business of soda.

In this edition of Press Clips: Bulletproof is headed to the Big Apple; one year after Berkeley, Calif.’s tax on sugar-sweetened beverages took effect, citywide sales of sugar-sweetened drinks fell by nearly 10 percent; the first colorless coffee in the world hits the market.

The most well-funded food and beverage start-ups by state include big names, Essentia signs Periscope as its first creative AOR, PepsiCo pulls 12-packs and 2 liter bottles from Philadelphia, and Forbes lists its top female leaders in food.

Stores report as high as 50 percent drop in soft drink sales following implementation of Philadelphia's controversial "Soda Tax" in January, Pressed Juicery announces new Boston-area location, and a U.K. study hospitalizes students with caffeine equivalent of 300 cups of coffee.

In the courtroom this month: A class action against Odwalla can move ahead after a judge declined a request to toss the case, Pennsylvania's state Supreme Court declines to hear the "soda tax" case, and POM Wonderful accuses Wonder Fuel of "forum shopping" in trademark infringement allegations.

In a move that some experts have described as similar in strategy to the legal actions taken against the tobacco industry in the 1990s, a new lawsuit accuses Coke and CSD-friendly trade group American Beverage Association (ABA) of engaging in a 40-year “elaborate campaign of disinformation” to minimize the health risks associated with soft drink consumption.